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b'(Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48;\\xa0\\xa0 Ps.98:1-4;\\xa0\\xa0 1Jn.4:7-10;\\xa0\\xa0 Jn.15:9-17) \\u201cThis I command you: love one another.\\u201d \\xa0And so we hear the Lord\\u2019s essential instruction: love.\\xa0 If we keep His commandments we will love, and if we love we will keep His commandments.\\xa0 His commandment is to love. But what is love?\\xa0 John gives us the simple answer, of course: \\u201cGod is love,\\u201d but also indicates further the nature of love, corroborated by the Lord Himself.\\xa0 It is \\u201cnot that we have loved God, but that He loved us.\\u201d\\xa0 Love comes not from us but from God, because, as we have said, God is love; we are not love.\\xa0 It is God the Father who has sent His Son to reveal His love by dying for our sins; without this sacrifice we would not know love, could not comprehend the love that is God, that is willing to lay down His very life for the sake of His children.\\xa0 Apart from this love we remain in the dark about love \\u2013 any love separated from this offering is not love at all. And as it is not we who love but He who gives love, who is love, so it is not we who choose Him but He us.\\xa0 We did not contrive the sacrifice of the Son: we could never have imagined it.\\xa0 We have, in fact, great difficulty in simply accepting it, so beyond our concept of love it is.\\xa0 But there it is.\\xa0 There He is, calling us to His love, to this love, to the sacrifice of our own selves for one another, that we might thoroughly share in the gift of love.\\xa0 We need but respond to know love. And who may share in this love?\\xa0 Let us come to Peter\\u2019s realization: \\u201cIn every nation whoever fears Him and acts uprightly is acceptable to Him.\\u201d\\xa0 There is none from whom the Spirit can be withheld, for, as John confirms, \\u201cEveryone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.\\u201d\\xa0 So we need but love.\\xa0 We need but put our hope in Him and in His love.\\xa0 We need but keep His command, and His love shall be our own, and we shall find ourselves \\u201cspeaking in tongues and glorifying God\\u201d; whomever we are and wherever we come from, we know \\u201cthe salvation by our God\\u201d by living in the love of the Spirit and being \\u201cbaptized in the name of Jesus Christ.\\u201d Alleluia!\\xa0 There is not much else to say.\\xa0 Alleluia!\\xa0 Praise the Lord!\\xa0 Let us forever live in His love.\\xa0 Let us forever die for one another. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Love, the Meaning of: Can You Love?" from Loving Spirit, third album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, thank you for sending us your Son, for sharing with us your love \\u2013 may we also share Him with others. YHWH, help us to love one another, to die for one another, that we might find the love you offer us in the sacrifice of your Son, that we might live ever in your love. What more could we want than to be begotten by you and know you by living in your love?\\xa0 What greater call can there be for our lives than to be united with you who are love?\\xa0 O LORD, all who fear you and act uprightly, all who love you and love their neighbor, all who desire you and your love you come to in your Son \\u2013 may all be baptized in His Name! Pour out your Spirit upon all souls, dear LORD, that all might be conformed to your will and made in the image of your Son.\\xa0 As Jesus let us all be, laying down our lives for one another in the Spirit of love.\\xa0 We are all but men, LORD, but your Son calls us His friends as He draws us into union with you and your love.\\xa0 Alleluia!'